The Hawkeyes gave up a 75-yard touchdown run to Heisman Trophy finalist Christian McCaffrey. Just 12 seconds into the 102nd Rose Bowl Game, Iowa was toast. Carly Fiorina’s campaign for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination suffered a similar fate.

Fiorina’s public show of support for the Big Ten West champions wreaked of desperation, and so comical in its transparent pandering, felt more befitting satire than real life. There was zero net-gain to be made in alienating her alma mater, and the subsequent “Carly Curse” will forever live in Iowa lore.

Unfortunately, Carly Fiorina isn’t the only presidential candidate in this cycle to mix college football and politics, only to have it blow up.

You may remember last fall Jeb Bush appearing at campaign stops dressed as SEC football tailgates in the fall. On its face, the strategy made sense.

South Carolina is a key, early state in the GOP primaries, and resides within the SEC footprint. Bush was also governor of Florida, another SEC state.

Christie praised the decision-making of embattled athletic director Julie Hermann, whose Rutgers tenure was New Jersey’s most toxic incident since Little Melvin fell into a vat of nuclear waste.

When the 2016 college football season arrives in September, the general election campaign will be in its home stretch. I implore all candidates to learn from the 2015 season, and respectfully punt on mixing their politicking with the game.